He was speaking at the sericulture workshop jointly organised by the silk department and zilla panchayat at Sasalukunte village in Pavagada taluk.

Pavagada is a draught hit land and hence farming is grossly dependent on irrigation.

Silk  is one of the major  produces of the land and it requires lot of water. There is a need to constantly develop newer methods of sericulture which utilise less water and less land. Sericulture workshops should dwell on such issues often,  he said.

Ground water misuse

Nidugal hobli is a living example of the disastrous effects of misusing ground water. The region has suffered huge losses due to ground water table depletion.

Crops like coconut, areca, tamarind and beetle leaves, which had been growing splendidly in hundreds of hectares of land since generations have now dried up. This should be a warning bell for farmers so that they diversify andgrowth different kinds of crops, he said.

“Make wise use of ground water. Make sure you percolate equal amount of rain water to replace the ground water you utilise. Otherwise you will face the danger of your land turning into a desert,” he cautioned farmers.

Silk production

Zilla Panchayat joint director Puttalingappa suggested farmers to aim for producing quality silk.

“Use scientific methods and right technology to get more yield per acre,” he said, adding that silk growers should avail the various schemes introduced for them by the government.

Assistant director Vrishabhendrakumar told farmers to give up the use of chemical  based fertilisers and go in for organic farming to reap more yield and better  quality silk.

Taluk silk department assistant director Venkatesh informed there are 797 silk growers in the taluk operating on 474 hectares of land. 

Tumkur silk assistant director M Vishwanath, Koratagere assistant director Krishnappa, gram panchayat president Tippeswamy and villagers took part in the programme.

More than 400 farmers participated in the workshop that was created to help them with their everyday activity and help them gain an expertise in the field.

A demonstration of state-of-the-art farm tools was also organised on this ocasion.